Aluminum species and activity in sandy soil solution with pig slurry addition

Abstract

Abstract: The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of pig slurry applications on the exchangeable Al content, activity, and distribution of Al chemical species in the soil solution. Soil samples of a Typic Hapludalf were obtained from an experiment conducted during eight years, with 19 applications of 0, 20, 40, and 80 m3 ha-1 pig slurry. The soil samples were collected in stratified layers to determine exchangeable Al content and to extract the soil solution by the saturated soil paste method. The concentrations of the main cations and anions, dissolved organic carbon, and pH in the soil solution were determined. The distribution of the chemical species of Al and the activity of the Al3+ species were obtained through the Visual Minteq software. The application of pig slurry does not change the exchangeable Al content in the soil and the Al3+ activity in the soil solution. The low Al3+ activity in the topsoil layers does not present risk of toxicity for most crops. Pig slurry applications increase the proportion of the AlHPO4 + and AlSO4 + species in the soil solution, by increasing the concentration of soluble inorganic ligands.

Keywords

• inorganic ligand
• organic amendment
• phytotoxicity
• soil solution